My IBM JS21 blade (type 8844), which is running AIX 5.3, had several error lights lit. They were the amber light with an exclamation mark. I saw no errors in the BladeCenter Advanced Management Module (AMM) event log. There were no hardware errors when I type in “errpt” in the AIX prompt. Strange.
There were four LED lights lit:
- On the physical blade
- On the physical BladeCenter chasis
- In the BladeCenter AMM GUI > Monitors > LED Media Tray and Rear Panel LEDs > System Error
- In the BladeCenter AMM > Monitors > LEDs > Blade LEDs
These error lights meant one of two things, since no errors were showing:
- They’re just false alarms.
OR
- There are hidden errors stored somewhere, and we needed to reset various system components to flush the errors out.
It my case it was (1). But it was a good idea to follow this process just to be certain.
How to Clear the LED Bang Lights
1) Restart the Blade System Management Processor. On the BladeCenter AMM, navigate to Blade Tasks > Power/Restart. Select your blade and click Restart Blade System Mgmt Processor. Don’t worry. Your blade will continue running.
My result: The Blade Center errors (errors 3 and 4, above)
2) Check for errors. BladeCenter AMM > Event Log.
AIX# errpt
My result: I found no errors.
3) Restart Management Module. BladeCenter AMM > MM Control > Restart MM. This will cause you to lose connection to the BladeCenter. Your blade servers will continue running.
My result: the physical chasis LED turned off. Bang light #1, on the physical blade remained. I had to schedule an outage and clear the NVRAM.
How to Clear NVRAM on a System P Blade Server
1) Schedule an outage.
2) Click Restart Blade and clear NVRAM, if you have this option. It should be in BladeCenter AMM > Blade Tasks > Power/Restart. Look on the bottom of the page. I, unfortunately, didn’t have this option. I just had Restart Blade. I restarted my blade for kicks.
My result: No dice. Still no errors. Error light 1, on my physical blade remained on.
3) Power off the server. It should be in the Power/Restart screen of your Blade Center.
4) Remove the battery from the server for five minutes. Slide out the blade, open the server, attach an anti-static wristband (if you worry about these things), and remove the nickel-sized battery. A small flathead screwdriver would be useful.
Warning: This will reset any custom BIOS settings, return you to the orginal BIOS firmware level, and reset your time clock. If you pretty much use default settings, like me, you’d probably be fine.
5) Open up a console window. If you’re using a JS20 or JS21, you’ll need these instructions. Otherwise, if you have a graphics card, you can use the BladeCenter Remote Control.
6) Put the server back together and power it up.
7) Follow the prompt and press 0 to select the console on your console window,. This is a good indication that the NVRAM has been cleared.
My result as it was booting: The physical blade LED turned off. But error lights 2, 3, and 4 all turned back on. This was like a bad joke.
8) Reset the time when you can log in.
The time command to set it for Aug 13 (0813), 6:52 pm (1852), 2008 (08):
AIX# time 0813185208
9) Wait for everything to come up. This is a good time to double check the error logs again.
10) Restart the Blade System Management Processor again. On the BladeCenter AMM, navigate to Blade Tasks > Power/Restart. Select your blade and click Restart Blade System Mgmt Processor.
My result: All LED bang lights turned off. Finally.